Alan Alda, who starred on CBS’ long-running comedy collection M*A*S*H alongside Loretta Swit, spoke out Friday after the information of Swit’s loss of life at age 87.
Swit, who performed Main Margaret “Scorching Lips” Houlihan on all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H from 1972-1983, died at her residence in New York Metropolis at age 87.
Alda performed Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce additionally for the total run of the 14-time Emmy-winning present, which was primarily based on Robert Altman’s 1970 function movie that starred Elliott Gould as Hawkeye and Sally Kellerman as Scorching Lips, the pinnacle nurse on the U.S. Cellular Military Surgical Hospital close to the entrance traces of the Korean Conflict.
“Loretta was a supremely proficient actor,” he posted on X. “She deserved all her 10 Emmy nominations and her 2 wins. However greater than performing her half, she created it. She labored exhausting In exhibiting the writing workers how they might flip the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into an actual particular person — with actual emotions and ambitions. We celebrated the day the script got here out itemizing her character not as Scorching Lips, however as Margaret. Loretta made essentially the most of her time right here.”
Swit and Alda appeared in all 251 episodes of M*A*S*H together with the 2½-hour collection finale that aired in February 1983. It stays the most-watched episode of collection TV in historical past, with greater than 105 million viewers and mind-boggling 60.2 score/77 share.
One other M*A*S*H common, Jamie Farr (who performed the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger), mentioned in an announcement, “I dearly liked Loretta! She was my adopted sister. As shut as household can get. From the primary time I met her, on what was imagined to be a someday look on M.A.S.H., we embraced one another and that turned a lifetime friendship. I can’t start to precise how a lot she shall be missed.”
